ODST: To Hell and Back
by AlphaGuardian
Summary: An Orbital Drop Shock Trooper is an elite killing machine. He knows no fear. He does not hesitate to kill to get the job done. But what happens when he is taken away from his mission? When he encounters friends and foes he could never dream of? When the mission itself has no hope of survival? He fights. Until the mission is complete, or he dies trying.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

" _Victory is secured, not from the throne, but from the front lines."_

-Excerpt from Sangheili Initiation Oath.

* * *

 _Charybdis IX. Ectanus 45 System._

 _July 17, 2522._

* * *

"Hey. Why's Ramirez just sittin' there?"

"He's in 'the mode'. Don't fuck with him. He's gonna go lone wolf on them Innies, man. They're fucked."

Damien sat in the Pelican dropship, eyes closed, hands wrapped around his XBR-55 Battle Rifle's barrel. He _was_ in what the rest of his squad called 'the mode': he was entirely focused on the mission to come. Damien had always been a lone wolf. It came with being an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper who was put with marines. The fact that he worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence, off the record, didn't help. The squad was just a formality, especially since they were all regular marines. They knew he worked alone, except when absolutely necessary.

And Damien liked it that way.

"And that means 'stay out of his way'. You know the target, Ramirez?" The squad leader asked him.

"Like the back of my hand."

"Finally got a bit of respect for command, eh?"

"I could say something else. But I might get demoted again."

"All right. Then let's go."

Damien was the first out when the Pelican touched down, and he was soon on his own. The jungle constantly moved around him, and with no satellites in orbit, his tactical display was blank. He disabled the polarized visor and removed his helmet. He took a breath and shook his jet-black hair out, relishing the feel of fresh air on his face. He took the communicator out of his helmet and pressed it into his ear, and then set out into the dark jungle.

" _Ramirez, we got some Innie chatter. They found some kind of artifact. Sending the location. See what you can find, and pray that ONI doesn't flip shit._ "

"Got it." He put his helmet back on and saw the coordinates appear on his HUD as a blue diamond in the landscape, about seven hundred meters away. He slowly walked through the forest towards it. The creepiest part was that the Innies had no patrols out. They must have seen the Pelican, so there should be some out.

But there were none.

He soon came to a large clearing, with a pyramid in the middle. It looked like it had come right from Egypt back on Earth, the tan bricks and overall perfect triangle shape to each side. The Innies were clustered around it.

 _Almost like they were worshipping it._

"Shit. Something's up here. And I don't like it. Better scope it out."

He pulled up his battle rifle's three-power scope and observed what was going on. The Insurrectionists were on their knees, prayer-style, hands to the sky, around a statue of some sort. It looked kind of human, except that the head was deformed. It also had four eyes. "That's just fucked up. These guys are being mind-controlled, I bet." He sent a burst transmission to the rest of the team, and moved in to investigate. When he walked up, the Innies ignored him. He grabbed his M6D pistol and fired a single round at the ground, and still none of them even jumped. He put a hand on one's shoulder and pulled him back.

 _His eyes were glazed over._

"Poor bastard is dead, or in a coma. This is so weird."

Damien walked over to the statue, wanting to figure out how it was doing this to these people. When he approached, it glowed with a sickly green aura, and Damien jumped as the statue crumbled, revealing a pillar-like structure.

"Okay. So very fucky."

The pillar glowed the same color as the statue had, so Damien cautiously approached. As he did, the very tip glowed intensely, and a beam shot out at Damien's head. It struck him dead on in the forehead, and knocked him to the ground, imprinting images in his mind. It was such a blur that he didn't even have time to think before it was over. When he opened his eyes, the statue was standing over him.

Except, it wasn't that statue. It looked like a UNSC AI, except it was green instead of blue.

 _What the hell are you?_ Damien's thoughts asked. The response was incomprehensible. It was using a different language than English. _What are you saying? Talk, damnit!_ Another response just like the last, but this one was different, like the thing was cycling through different languages to find the one that Damien's thoughts understood.

 _Does this dialect suit you better?_ The voice asked eventually. Damien hauled himself to his feet, and had to look up at the thing. It was a good foot taller than him.

 _Yes. What are you?_ Damien's thoughts asked.

 _I am of a species that came before you. Our empire spanned this galaxy and many more, but we were wiped out. Our technology remains, though. It is our legacy._

 _Why are you here? Why talk to only me?_

 _Because you do not revere us as gods. You see us as an unknown, not a deity. These other humans,_ it said as it swept its hand across the kneeling Insurrectionists, _fear us, and therefore wish to have our favor. This shall not be so. You approached and attempted communication. We responded._ _There is one thing we ask of you. This crude temple,_ it said as it indicated to the temple, _contains a piece of our technology. We wish you to use it, and forge your path through what lies beyond. We have deemed you worthy of the knowledge contained inside this beacon. We have imparted it to you. Use it well._

 _I didn't even understand what you 'imparted'. What the hell are you talking about?_

 _You will understand in time, young warrior. Go. Forge your path. We will be waiting._

Damien's vision turned to white, and he found himself back on the ground, with the Insurrectionists still kneeling as they were. But when he stood up, they all snapped out of their trance, and stared at him like he was a heathen. "YOU FOOL! YOU HAVE DESECRATED THE SANCTUARY! KILL HIM!" One shouted.

"Son of a-"

He dove to the side as they all got up and charged at him. Suddenly, the beacon flared, and the Insurrectionists were vaporized, except for one, who was too close to Damien for the beacon to distinguish between him and the ODST. That one slammed a small knife into Damien's chest, which went through his armor and pierced his chest.

"Fuck!" Damien shoved his M6D into the man's head and shot him twice, turning the Innie's head into a pulp. Damien, now alone, sat down and grabbed his can of biofoam from his pack. He shoved the nozzle into the stab wound, and let the foam seal the wound. He would live, but that wound would slow him down a bit. He got up and walked into the temple. The second he stepped in, fierce lances of pain shot through his head and resounded in his entire body. The pain forced him to his knees and made him gasp for breath. "Jesus Christ… What the hell is this?"

He hauled himself to his feet and kept walking, every step sending indescribable pain through his body. His chest wound was gone for some reason, probably that thing watching out for him again, but Damien could barely keep his eyes open.

 _We will guide you. Let your senses run free._ A whisper in the air told him. Damien slammed his eyes shut, and the path became more apparent for him. As he slowly regained his orientation, and his sight, he found a small key-like device in a large amphitheater-style room. It was only the size of his hand, and he took it. As his hand touched it, it glowed blue and started to whir. The glow became more intense and soon became too much for even his polarized visor to keep out. He crushed his eyes shut and lost all feeling in his body.

* * *

 _Chronos Station. Cerberus Headquarters._

* * *

The dying star cast an eerie orange glow upon the Illusive Man's office. The holoscreens in front of him showed reports from various Cerberus cells. But then something else appeared that caught his interest.

An energy surge.

As he studied the readings, he lit a cigarette and took a long drag, contemplating what this meant.

This was obviously worth looking into, as this was no ordinary energy surge:

A tiny mass relay had just popped into existence in the Attican Traverse.

In the next few minutes, the Illusive Man sent orders to a few of his agents to investigate. He would have preferred to have Miranda Lawson on this, but she was preoccupied with the Lazarus Project. So these three would have to do.

The confirmations came in, and he took another drag of his cigarette, pondering how this could benefit humanity. If this happened to be what he thought it was, he had just found another potential ally for the Commander.

And the Illusive Man was usually dead on with his presumptions.

* * *

 _Unknown location._

Damien Ramirez in two words: royally fucked.

He didn't know where he was, comms with the squad were dead, and on top of that, his Battle Rifle was missing. All he had was his knife and pistol, and the latter wouldn't last long. It only had two more spare clips. He walked around, trying to get his bearings, but he just couldn't, so he sat down underneath a tree and closed his eyes, trying to make sense of whatever that pillar had shot into his brain.

 _A gigantic space station, with four prongs around a central ring. Incomprehensible images. A huge squid-like creature sitting on top of a large protrusion from the station with weapons fire raining down on it. More incomprehensible images. A woman in black and red armor, squaring off with a weird cyborg-like creature in broken images. When she killed it, the giant squid-creature was gutted by a frigate-like ship, and destroyed._

Damien opened his eyes to see three men standing over him. They didn't seem familiar, and the emblem on their suits didn't ring a bell.

"Who are you?" One asked.

"Who are _you_?" Damien retorted.

"A smartass, huh? Well, as it seems, you're the source of a massive energy surge. Care to explain it?"

"Care to explain why you're just going to interrogate me without good reason, _civilian_? I'm a UNSC marine Staff-Sergeant. I've been fighting Innies for ten years, so show some goddamn respect before I beat it into you."

"A smartass _and_ a pathological liar. Looks like he's not gonna talk." The man said to the others.

"Touch me, and you'll all be dead before you can say 'oh shit'." Damien stood up, and looked straight at the lead man. "You're an absolute pussy. You couldn't take me in a straight fight. You couldn't take me if I was hauling a fifty pound brick over my shoulder." Damien concluded.

"Why you-!" As the man's fist came forward, Damien caught it, and lashed out, striking the man on the nose and knocking him down. The other two sat there gawking at the scene.

"Who's next?" The man on the ground got back up as his forearm flared orange, and a hologram appeared of a man in a black suit with a cigarette in his hand. He seemed calm, collected, and deadly serious.

"And just who the fuck are you?" Damien demanded.

" _Someone who can offer you a place here._ "

"Oh, really? Well, I'd start by teaching your goons how to make a proper first impression. Because whatever kind of operation you're running here, you're not running it very well." The ODST crossed his arms and scowled.

" _Cerberus is a decentralized organization. My operatives are expected to respond to a situation how they feel is best._ "

"Really? Well, if that's how they handle everything, then you aren't training them well."

" _When you threaten my operatives, they will respond in turn._ "

"I didn't threaten them. I told them what would happen. I don't bluff."

" _Then perhaps you might consider joining Cerberus. Judging by the look of you, I'd say you're a soldier. I need soldiers._ "

"No thanks. I'll find my own way."

" _Cerberus stands for all of humanity. We are dedicated to the advancement of the human race. I can see that you share our views just from the way that you hold yourself. We can offer you a place where your actions will benefit humanity. Where you can help uplift humanity._ "

 _If it sounds too good to be true…_ Damien thought. "No. I'd rather make my own judgment calls."

" _Humanity is in dire straits. We're at war, but no one wants to admit it. Whole colonies are disappearing. Without a trace._ "

"I. Don't. Care."

Damien walked away, and didn't run into Cerberus again for almost a year.

* * *

 _Three months later._

 _The Citadel. Presidium Commons._

* * *

Damien walked along the somewhat-picturesque walkways, looking around at the scars from the battle almost a year ago.

After his incident with Cerberus, Damien had smuggled himself off-planet in a cargo freighter, and found himself here, where he had spent the last two months building a new life for himself. He constantly found himself in mercenary positions. But it was money in his pocket, and that was what counted. Today, he was just out and about, enjoying the day. Every day seemed the same here on the Citadel. Clear skies, beautiful sun. Warm, and not too humid.

Damien hated it. To him, complacency was like swooping. It was bad. It spelled big changes to come. Humanity had a big place in this galaxy. But they were still the underdogs. Always at the whimsies of the other Council races.

Surprisingly, Damien didn't mind the other races. He didn't associate with too many of them, but he didn't mind them.

"Taking an off-day, Ramirez?" Someone asked.

A Salarian in a black suit walked up beside him with a sly smile on his face. Ivo never ceased to piss Damien off. He was ignorant, annoying and a severe ass-kisser.

"Fuck off. I already did my job. Kyren's getting me another."

"Some of us would kill for the boss to personally hand us a job. You just take it like it's nothing."

"'Cause it is, asshole. Now get out of my face, before I make yours a pulp."

"Kyren's not gonna like you threatening me."

"Kyren doesn't care. As long as the job gets done, he don't give a shit." Ivo scoffed and walked off, and Damien walked the other way towards his apartment. The mercenary work paid enough for Damien to afford a small apartment on the Presidium, and he liked it. Wasn't much for looks, but it functioned well.

 _Well, my day has officially been ruined._ He thought as he walked.

"Hey, Dame. Got something you might wanna see." A short human merchant said. This was Larry Bider. Nice guy. Ran a nice little shop that Damien frequented. Larry was also one of his contacts when he needed work.

"A job?"

"Not really. It's right here on the Presidium. Package coming in." Larry said as they walked towards his shop.

"I sense a big 'but' coming up."

"Yeah. C-Sec seized the shipment it came in. They have it at their offices down in the Lower Wards."

"What is this package anyway?"

"Antique. A nice gunpowder rifle. I was gonna display it proudly in the shop, but I figured you'd get more use out of it than I would. So here's the deal: You get that rifle, you can keep it. You don't, it's no big deal. C-Sec keeps it, maybe auctions it off. I'm doin' this for you, man. No one else knows about the rifle, not even Kyren."

"That's pretty impressive. I'll see if I can grab it."

"Take your time, man. God knows C-Sec will."

"Yeah, no shit. Damien walked out and back towards his apartment, but he turned back as he neared, eager to find that rifle. Might be a veritable replacement for his lost BR-55. He went down to the Lower Wards, to C-Sec headquarters. He walked to the front desk and waited for a C-Sec officer to come back. The one who did come back almost made Damien want to leave. Captain Bailey was not someone he got along with very well. In fact, Damien wanted nothing more than to rip Bailey's head off and feed it to a Thresher Maw. Bailey was always in his way during jobs. More than once he had cost Damien a job.

"I'm half ready to throw you out right now, Ramirez. What in the hell could possibly bring _you_ here?" Bailey said.

"Yeah, piss off. I didn't come to put up with your shit. I'm here about that confiscated gunpowder rifle." Damien said.

"Why would you want something like that?"

"Family heirloom." He lied. "Was supposed to get it three years ago, but we had some issues with getting it."

"Then maybe your family should know better than to send firearms to the Citadel."

"Yeah, they live out in the Traverse. They don't give a shit. How much to get it out?"

"Let's see here… thirteen-hundred credits."

"All right. Uncle Brady's gonna kill me." He said as he transferred the funds with his omni-tool.

"It's right back there. I'll unlock the door for you. Hard to miss. Second shelf on the left. Try not to lose it this time."

"Yeah, fuck you, too." Damien walked back, and found the rifle on the shelf. He pulled it off, and almost dropped it.

It was his XBR55 Battle Rifle. Nothing had been changed about it. It even still had his initials carved in the lower receiver.

 _Guess I didn't exactly lie when I said that it belonged to the family._ He thought. _Gotta wonder who found it, and where. Oh, well. Mine now, assholes._

He pulled the magazine, ejected the round in the chamber, and walked out as he put the round in the clip and the rifle on his back. He went back to his apartment, and actually went there this time, and put the Battle Rifle next to his M6D pistol, which he never used. He instead favored an M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle, much like his XBR55, and an M-3 Predator pistol.

His omni-tool flashed with an incoming comm, and a scarred Turian face popped up in front of him.

" _Ramirez. Got another job for you._ " Kyren said." _Might get to put that new rifle to use._ "

* * *

 _Two months later._

"Fuckin' dickheads." Damien sat against the wall, cradling his arm which now promptly ended at the elbow. For the last two months, he had been tracking a Volus black-market dealer who had been selling modified firearms to the wrong people. And that meant to those who didn't work for Kyren.

Kyren had found a lead for him, and it turned out to be a trap. Damien was lucky to get out with his life. Two Krogan, plus Turian backup, had almost overwhelmed him. It had been a tough battle, but the Krogan were both dead in front of him, and only one Turian had gotten away.

"I bet he knew about this. Kyren, you bastard." Damien said to himself.

He hauled himself up and walked to the nearest hospital, which he found to be not very far away. He got a few weird looks along the way, but he didn't care. He was missing his arm, not his leg. Not that big of a deal to him. Plenty of marines had lost limbs to the Innies.

"Uh, Doc? I kinda got a problem." He said as he walked in and showed the doctor his stub of an arm.

"What happened to you?"

"Long story. Fuck, it hurts like hell."

The doctors cleaned and sterilized the wound, then sealed it. They wanted to flash-clone a new arm for him, but he preferred a prosthetic. The entire operation took about a day, but Damien was able to use the arm like it was his own flesh and bone.

 _Looks more intimidating, like a UNSC marine should._ He thought as he looked at the arm. He went back to his apartment, and found Kyren waiting for him.

"What happened to you?" Kyren asked.

"It was a trap."

"Then he wasn't there?"

"What the fuck do you think? Of course he wasn't there."

"If I had known, I would've gone with you."

"Bullshit. You couldn't help against Krogan."

"Yikes."

"Exactly. Got any more leads?"

"No. Just came by to see if you were here, since you didn't make a report."

"Yeah, I was kinda busy having my arm chopped off and replaced."

Kyren chuckled and left, and Damien flopped down on his bed and fell asleep. It had been a hell of a day. And more like it were just around the corner. He dreamed about the images that the beacon had implanted in his head, trying unsuccessfully to make more sense of them.

This was really starting to piss him off.

* * *

 _Five weeks later._

"You'd think after almost six months in this shithole that I'd have a better life, wouldn't you? Maybe a place with a big window overlooking the Presidium lake, or a nice little place real close to the markets. Nope. I still don't have jack shit." Damien said. He and a friend, Alan Marsh, were sitting in a bar on the Lower Wards, where Damien was telling Alan of his exploits.

"You're one of the most well-known mercenaries on the Citadel. You must have work out the wazoo." Alan said.

"Nope. Business has been dull since I lost my arm. A few odd jobs, enough to keep my place, but that's about it."

"You know, word is that some of the merchants up on the Presidium are hiring mercenaries from all over. Don't know what they want 'em for, but it seems like it's right up your alley. With your reputation, you won't have any trouble getting hired."

"No kidding? I'll have to see what's up."

"Thought you'd like to hear that. Been good to see you again. Don't die on any of these jobs."

"No promises."

* * *

"What do you want?" A Volus merchant asked him when he approached.

"I hear you're hiring mercenaries for a special job."

"So what?"

"Maybe you don't know who I am. Does the name 'Ramirez' ring a bell?"

"Now I see it. You used to work for Kyren. You want in? I only have enough for a few more mercs."

"What's the job?"

"An expedition to some ruins in the Terminus Systems. Way out in the Shrike Abyssal. I don't know what we'll find there, but the information is good. There's a lot of coin to be made there."

"What will I get paid?"

"Depends on what you have to kill when we get there."

"I'm in. Not much around here anyway."

* * *

 _Chronos Station. Cerberus Headquarters._

The Illusive Man was pleased. The Lazarus Project was making great strides with Operative Lawson at the head, and Damien Ramirez had taken the bait. The best mercenary this side of the Orion Arm was about to walk right into Cerberus' pocket. The Illusive Man was more than displeased to have to work with a Volus, but he could not afford to lose Ramirez. His expertise would be valuable to the Commander's team when she began her mission. And he would be valuable to Cerberus when this was all over.

He stared out at the red giant star and lit a cigarette, waiting to see how the next few months would play out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, I think we have a good story here. My email has been blown up with follows and favorites, so I must be doing something right. (Here's hoping I can keep it going!)**

Chapter 1

 _The Citadel._

* * *

Damien grabbed his duffel bag and walked out of his apartment. He had already put down the rent for the next four months, since that was how long he expected to be gone, and had taken what he thought he needed for the expedition. Rations, ammo, modifications for his weapons, his new armor, and his weapons. All of them. He walked out with his duffel bag and a pack on his back. The shuttle was waiting for him, and there he met three other mercenaries hired for the job: a Turian, a Krogan, typical, and a human. They all cast strange glances at him when he stepped in, and the Krogan smirked as he stuck out his hand. "Ramirez. Been a while."

"Good to see you, Gart." Damien said as he shook the mercenary's hand. "Didn't think we'd ever work together again."

"Yeah, that was quite the job. You still with Kyren?"

"No. left a while ago. Pretty sure he's responsible for _this_." He held up his prosthetic arm, and Gart grunted in appreciation.

"Nice battle scar."

"Certainly makes for a good conversation topic."

"Oh, so that's what you do now? Hang around looking for a mate?"

"No. I keep up with the work. Get a little sidetracked, sure, but me? Give up? Hell no."

"Should've figured."

"How's your work paying?"

"I'm here, aren't I? Still pays. Not as much. Mostly just intimidation jobs now. There're no fun jobs."

"Well, then our definitions of a 'fun' job are completely different."

"You lost an arm. That's a fun job to me."

The shuttle docked with the main freighter soon after, and the mercenaries all congregated in the main hold to swap stories and such while the heads of the expedition went to finalize some details.

But Damien went off on his own.

He didn't want them to see the relic.

A few weeks back, Damien had been off the Citadel on an odd job on some obscure planet when he had stumbled across a hidden cave. He had naturally explored around and found a small cavern with a rod on a pedestal in the center. When he had touched the rod, it had glowed that sickly green color, which told Damien that it was linked to whatever had brought him here. He had decided that it might be useful on this expedition, and had brought it with him.

He now sat in a secluded spot well away from the rest of the mercenaries, and was examining the relic. It looked like stainless steel, but he knew that was bullshit. This thing was older than all the stainless steel in the galaxy. Whatever it was, anyway.

"Nice relic." Someone said.

 _SHIT!_ Damien thought as he shot up and saw a young human woman walking over. She looked barely out of her twenties, had short brown hair, and a slight glimmer in her light hazel eyes.

She chuckled and brushed her hair back behind her ear as he panicked and hid the relic. "I'm not gonna take it. You probably found it fair and square. So relax."

 _Oh, thank God._ He sighed internally.

"Where'd you find it?" She asked.

"Some planet that I never learned the name of. It was in a cave."

"And I bet the cave came down around you as you heroically escaped with this."

"No. Nothing happened. It was pretty boring. And the pay was shitty."

"Well, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Kelly."

"Damien." When he reached out to shake her hand, he accidentally reached with his left hand, and she recoiled at the sight of the prosthetic forelimb.

"Wh- what's that?!"

"Oh, sorry. It's a metal arm. I lost the original in a fight with a Krogan."

"Sounds like you had quite the life."

"Not really. Working on the Citadel sucked. No real action there."

"Why'd you work there then?"

"That's where I ended up. Smuggled myself off of my homeworld so long ago I can't remember it, and found myself there."

"Wow. What's it like there?" She asked as they sat down and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

 _Okay… weird._ He thought. "It's huge. And beautiful. Outside of the Presidium, you're pretty much on your own. Gangs rule the lowest of the Wards, and C-Sec has given up trying to oust them. Upper Wards aren't bad. There's the occasional odd crook, but that's why you carry a gun at all times."

"I've never really been to the Citadel. Well, my mom took me when I was a little girl, but I don't remember it at all."

"It's a great place, if you know what you're doing."

"So is the rest of the galaxy."

"Point taken." They sat and talked a bit more, and with each change in the conversation, Kelly pulled herself closer to Damien. _What's… going on here?_ Damien wondered. _Why is this happening?_

"You know, you're," she wound a finger through his hair, "oddly attractive for a mercenary I found hiding a glowing rod." She smiled so innocently at him.

"Uh… o-okay… um… no… comment."

Kelly chuckled. "You're cute when you're nervous."

"Why-"

"Am I hitting on you?" She finished.

"Um… sure. Why not? Why _are_ you hitting on me?"

"Because I want to."

"Well, if you say so."

"I do say so." She giggled and kissed his cheek. "If that's a problem, you can always walk away." She whispered in his ear. Damien blushed and ducked his head as he nervously chuckled. "I'll take that as a good sign." She ran her hand down his cheek. "I like good signs." She turned his head around to face her and held his stare. Damien stuttered a bit before falling silent again. "What's the matter?" She leaned her head in close enough to just brush his lips. "Cat got your tongue?" She whispered. Her hand rested on his shoulder and she suddenly pounced onto him and pinned him to the ground. She sighed and kissed him. Damien panicked and tried to push her off of him, but she didn't even move. She pulled him up and pushed him against the wall. She straddled him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He tried once again to push her away, and still he did not succeed. "Damien…" She pressed his head back against the wall and rammed her tongue into his throat as she kissed him again. "I can't let you go. I want you too much to let you go." She took his head in her hands and looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry if I'm so… forthcoming. But… I can't help myself."

Damien stuttered for a second while Kelly stared at him. He finally exhaled sharply and gathered his thoughts. "I… I don't care." He grabbed her around her back, pulled her back to him and kissed her. She gasped in surprise and was paralyzed in shock for only a second before she threw herself back onto him.

* * *

He woke up to Kelly curled up next to him on the small bed. It almost frightened him to see her there, so calm and beautiful, but he had seen worse. When she woke up a few minutes later, the very first thing she did was kiss him. "You're comfy. I like snuggling with you." Damien chuckled and laid his head back down next to hers. "Hold me, I'm cold." He silently pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. "I knew I made a good choice following you yesterday."

"You followed me?"

"I saw you walk off and my curiosity got the better of me." She curled back up and was asleep before Damien could say anything.

"Oh, God. What have I gotten myself into?"

* * *

The next day, the mercenaries held a sparring tournament in the cargo hold. Damien handled most of his opponents pretty easily, except for Weyrloc Gart, his old friend. The Krogan almost knocked Damien out cold with a solid right hook, but Damien barely dodged the hit and retaliated with a swift kick to the back of the Krogan's head, which sent him down. The other mercenaries hooped and hollered, and Damien fought to catch his breath. "Holy shit. That was a good one, Gart. I haven't fought like that in years." When Gart said nothing, Damien shook his Krogan friend. "Gart? Gart? Oh, shit. I knocked him out. Damn." It took five other mercenaries to haul the unconscious behemoth away from the makeshift ring.

And then Damien felt someone drag him away. "That was intense," Kelly said, "remind me never to get on your bad side."

"Yeah…" he groaned, "I hurt all over."

"I imagine." She leaned him against the wall and he fell asleep.

* * *

"Hey." Kelly was shaking him to wake him up. "Wake up. We've landed."

"Ugh…" he groaned, "wha-?"

"We landed about a minute ago. Come on. Get your gear." She helped him up and he went to his bunk and grabbed his backpack, slung his rifles over his shoulders, put his pistols in their holsters, slipped his helmet on and followed Kelly out. By the time they had left the freighter, most of the expedition had already started to move out.

"They really don't want to waste any time, do they?" Damien said.

"Come on. Better not keep them waiting." Kelly said as they followed the other mercenaries.

The group, totaling over twenty, made a slow trek through the dark caverns, the only light coming from the lights on their helmets. "I don't like this. It's too dark in here." Someone said.

"Suck it up, you damn pussy." Gart snapped. The other merc sneered and kept walking.

"Idiots." Gart said to Damien.

"Some people just don't have the stomach for this type of work. Those people don't need to be here."

"Exactly." Gart grunted and walked off.

"Do you know him well?" Kelly asked Damien.

"We did a job together on Omega. He's a good guy. Likes to scare people. Comes with being a Krogan."

"Ah."

Most of the rest of the trek was silent, except for the occasional complaint from the mercenaries, which were silenced by Gart and Damien. Damien himself was a bit unsettled by the perpetual darkness. He wondered if there really were any artifacts down here, or if this was going to be a suicidal goose chase.

On the fourth day in the caverns, Kelly suddenly poked his back. "Is that thing supposed to be glowing?" She whispered. He pulled out the relic, and sure enough, it was glowing faintly. He walked a few more steps, and it started to glow more intensely, and then died out. He walked back to where the glow was most intense, and then started looking for something that the relic would go with.

"You dote. Give that here." One of the leaders of the expedition told him as he snatched the rod from Damien's hand. He slotted it in the floor, and the wall in front of them retracted. Another of the business partners of the expedition looked in the room, and pulled up his omni-tool.

"Mr. Ramirez. You just made us a shitload of money." Damien's omni-tool flared and showed him how much the man had transferred to him. Almost half of a million credits. Damien was set for life with this.

 _Holy shit!_ He thought.

"Don't mind Eric. He couldn't show gratitude if he had to save his life with it." The man continued.

"Yeah, no problem."

"Well, don't just stand there, boys! Start carrying!" The other shouted from inside the room.

"Wait… does anyone else feel that?" A mercenary said.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Not here!"

"What? What is it?"

"An earthquake!?"

"Worse."

"Volcano?!"

"How about Thresher Maws?" Damien said as a worm-like head poked out of the ground. He grabbed his M-15 Vindicator and pulsed bursts at the creature. It burrowed back into the ground, and more soon showed up.

"Oh, great. This feels just like Akuze." Kelly said.

"Except there, the Maws were a hundred feet tall, right?" Damien asked.

"Yeah." The Maws were all over them, sometimes eating a merc or two, sometimes eating nothing but bullets. They didn't care. And Damien began to suspect that they weren't even feeling the bullets. Soon, over half the mercs were gone. The one called 'Eric' whispered something to himself, and to Damien's ear, he sounded like he was making a plan.

"The Maws… they're mating!"

"This early in life!?" A merc asked just before he was eaten.

"Yes! Mating! They're hungry after all that work, and we're a perfect meal for them! But how to satisfy them…"

The group was down to five: Kelly, Damien, Eric, and two other adventurers.

Then they went to four. A Maw came up out of the ground in front of Kelly and Damien, who were in front of Eric, and suddenly, Kelly was in its mouth, and Eric's arms were outstretched.

 _He had shoved her in._

Then the Maw was gone.

"NO!" Damien shouted as he collapsed to his knees. Silence once more. The Maws had left.

"Well, that ended well." Eric said as he dusted off his hands.

"ENDED WELL?!" The man who had talked to Damien before shouted.

 _She's dead…_ Damien thought. _They all are…_

"We're alive, aren't we?"

 _Dead… Gone…_ He could feel his blood boiling in his veins.

"What did it cost, Eric?! Look around! Twenty good men and women just became Maw food!"

 _And it's his fault._

"They were expendable. We found the cache. We can come back."

 _Expendable._

That word made Damien snap. He slowly got up, walked over, and planted his knife into Eric's throat. Damien looked straight into the man's eyes as he gurgled and coughed up blood. "I will personally make sure you never see the light of day again. What you did here is inexcusable. You have just sent us all to our deaths. But if I'm gonna die in here, you're gonna suffer a thousand times more than any of them did." He said in a cold, level voice. He removed his knife, and left Eric to bleed out while he and the two remaining business partners, a human and a volus, left.

"Hey. I'm sorry. For what happened. If I had known there would be Thresher Maws…" One started to say to Damien.

"Don't bother. You can't change it now. What's done is done."

"You two were really close, weren't you?"

"Yeah…"

"Ah, shit." The man put his head in his palm and sighed. "Eric was always too smart for his own good."

"It's over now. Let's just find a way out of here." For three days, they searched for a way out, and found themselves back at the entrance, which they had never been far from in the first place, only a few kilos away. Damien sat down in the main hold while the two surviving business partners flew the ship.

"Got anywhere particular you want to go?" One asked him.

"Not really. Just away from the Citadel."

"All right." He said as he turned to walk away. "Hey, you need any help with anything, let me know. After what happened there, I got your back."

"Thanks. I never got your name."

"Darren. Darren Bailsley."

When they reached the nearest space station, Damien took a shuttle and left for the Terminus Systems; he had heard during the expedition that the Terminus had better work for someone like Damien, and he was eager to leave Citadel space and the prying eyes of C-Sec and the Alliance.

* * *

 _Chronos Station. Cerberus Headquarters._

Now he was shattered. Now Damien could be recruited more successfully.

The Illusive Man thought it a shame to lose as good of an operative as Ms. Rylin, but it was a necessary cost. She had volunteered for this, after all. Someone had to build him up in order to bring him down.

It was also a shame to lose as much money as he had put into this expedition, but in the long run, it would pay off when they had to fight the Collectors.

The Lazarus Project was proceeding nicely, as was the construction of the new _Normandy_.

Everything was going according to plan. The Illusive Man took a drag from his cigarette and smirked as he watched the monitors in front of him. Soon, Cerberus would mobilize, hopefully with Damien Ramirez in their ranks.

* * *

 _Omega. Outer Terminus Systems._

 _Two months after the expedition._

Damien leaned against the wall, waiting for his contact to give him the information on his next job.

In the past months, he had rebuilt his network of contacts after severing all of his former ones. He now had almost fifteen contacts that gave him more jobs than he needed. It shamed him to turn down jobs, but he had to in order to be able to do any, so he bore with it.

A Salarian in a red striped suit brushed past him, and handed him a letter. A little old-school, but Damien appreciated the secrecy; according to the contact, this job was top-secret. He opened the letter and started reading.

 _Your target is a gang leader, Rudi Matril. He runs the Eclipse gang here on Omega. Matril's hiding at the provided coordinates. I've already transferred a sum of credits to the account you provided and more will come if this job is successful. Save the head if you can. I want it for my trophy wall. Due credit will be given, of course._

 _Gang leader_. Damien thought. _That's new. This'll be fun._

Damien went to the docking bay and grabbed his shuttle, heading for the coordinates provided. It was in the warehouse district of Omega. Lots of lawlessness there. Not ruled by Eclipse, but rather the Blue Suns, rival gang to Eclipse.

But lately, both had been on the decline, as had the Blood Pack. And that had piqued Damien's interest. No one had been able to do this much damage in so short a time. He wanted to meet this guy. Or girl.

But his mind needed to be on the job as he landed. The docks were empty so he cautiously got out and scouted around a bit. All empty warehouses. But the sound of machinery echoed from the end of the lane, so Damien grabbed his Vindicator Battle Rifle and crept towards it.

As he got close, the door creaked open and a helmeted Turian came out. Damien brought out his knife, but before he could bring it down on the Turian's throat, the latter held up a hand to stop him.

"Wait! I'm a friend."

"And I'm supposed to believe you why?"

"Because I hired you to help me out."

"Uh-huh."

Damien sheathed his knife and cradled his Vindicator, finger on the trigger.

"Name's Archangel. Ready to go put a head on a stick?"

* * *

"Easy way, or hard way, Matril?!" Archangel shouted to the Eclipse leader.

"I got lots of ammo and mercs, Archangel! You and your pal are toast!"

"I don't think so." Damien said as he popped up behind Matril.

"What the-!"

Damien tackled the merc leader and sent the latter's M-76 Revenant Machine Gun spinning. Matril threw Damien off and they engaged in a brutal melee, each getting in their licks before a brief pause. Both were bloody and bruised. This was the kind of fight that Damien liked.

"You're dead meat, human." Matril growled.

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

Damien got up and grabbed his knife, walking towards the Salarian gang leader who was scrambling towards his Revenant.

"Too late, asshole."

Damien grabbed him by the throat and rammed the blade into his stomach. Matril coughed up some blood and punched Damien in the face. But the damage was done. As Matril bled out, Damien scooped up the fallen M-76 and walked out with Archangel right behind him.

"Nice job."

"Should go back and put a bullet in his head, but I'd rather not waste the ammo."

"Either way, the job's done. I'll send the rest of the pay. If you want any more jobs, just ask."

"Lucas?"

"Yeah."

"Got it." The two shook hands and left. Damien went to his apartment and hung his weapons on the wall, alongside his old helmet and dog tags. He was no longer Staff-Sergeant Damien Ramirez. Now he was just Damien, a mercenary. No longer a professional soldier, he fought for money and occasionally because he wanted to. It disgusted him, but he had to do it. For some reason, he could never bring himself to enlist with the Systems Alliance military. He just felt like it was wrong to go back to being a soldier after so long away from active duty.

He flopped down on the small couch and shut his eyes, letting the day's events wash out of his system. He knew Eclipse would come for blood. He had just killed their leader. If the new one had any balls, they would come after him and Archangel. Damien expected a nice house call within a few weeks.

During his wait, he took a few odd jobs. A week later, they finally came. With a bang.

The door blew inwards with the breaching charge's detonation, and Damien rolled off the couch, M-3 Predator in hand and loaded. The first merc in had his head blown off by the round, and his body tripped up the second and third, each of which were also shot dead. _Damn, I'm good._ Damien thought. A pair of mercs came from his left, through the windows, so the ex-ODST pivoted and met their charge, tackling and stabbing both with his knife.

More shattered glass. They were coming from all sides. _Gotta move. Can't let 'em box me in. But where to go? Oh, shit! I can't believe I let them box me in! Son of a bitch!_ His pistol moved like the wind across his hands, jumping with every pull of the trigger, every dead Eclipse mercenary. _Shit, shit, shit! This is not good. I'll run out of ammo before they run out of mercenaries. This is so not good._ He took off towards the nearest window. The apartment was fairly high off the ground, but that wouldn't stop Damien. He rammed his shoulder into the glass, and the Eclipse mercenary on the other side went down with him. _Perfect. A cushion. Sorry buddy._ The merc was still screaming as they smacked the ground thirty feet below. Damien rolled off the body, cradling his arm. He let out a short shriek of pain. Not only had a large piece of glass gone through it, but the impact had shattered it _inside_ his arm. _Oh, great. Just great. Now I have a shitload of mercs on me,_ and _a broken arm. Nice going, dumbass._ He thought.

A pair of human mercenaries in green armor walked up and helped him up, each one shooting an Eclipse mercenary dead. "We got your back." One said.

"Who sent you?"

"Archangel."

"Well, then." Damien scooped up his pistol and followed the two back to where they were hiding out with Archangel while Eclipse hunted for Damien.

"Looks like trouble follows you, Ramirez." The Turian remarked.

"Had to figure this would happen. They just caught me while I was getting my belt on." The two mercs left them alone to talk.

"You know, you remind me of someone I knew before. She was a great person, and she always seemed to be looking after the crew, but she never took any crap from anyone. I respected that." Archangel said.

"Who was she?"

"Commander Shepard. She died almost two years ago. Well, they say she's just MIA, but after two years, even I'd say she's dead."

"Never know. Some people can hide pretty well. Like that guy." Damien pulled out his pistol and shot the Salarian spy hiding in the corner in the head. "Too bad he didn't hide well enough."

"Thanks."

"No problem. You save my ass, I save yours. We're even."

Damien grabbed the body and with Archangel's help, hid it so that no one would find it and become suspicious. The next day, Damien returned to his shot-up apartment, and found the rest of his weapons still where he had hidden them under the floorboards.

"I win, assholes." He said as he checked his rifles and holstered his pistols.

He set to work cleaning up the apartment, and soon it was like nothing at all had happened, unless someone looked at the shattered windows, or the bloodstains on the carpets, or the bullet holes in the walls. But he soon grew tired of the gangs on Omega, and left to explore for new jobs in the Terminus.

* * *

 _Chronos Station_

It was time. The Lazarus Project was complete. Shepard was back. He heard a whir behind him and stood up, taking a drag of his cigarette as he turned. "Shepard. Good work on Freedom's Progress. I've received the data from the Quarian's omni-tool. The data itself is nothing new, but it's a surprising olive branch given our history."

" _Maybe you should try diplomacy sometime._ " Shepard crossed her arms." _It really helps._ "

"Diplomacy doesn't work when everyone already perceives us as a threat."

" _The Collectors are behind the attacks._ "

"The data seems to indicate so."

" _You don't seem very surprised._ "

"I've had my suspicions for some time, but now I'm sure."

" _How do we stop them?_ "

"Right now, we can't. The Collectors come from beyond the Omega-4 mass relay. No ship that has ever gone through has come back. The relay must react differently to Collector vessels, allowing safe passage."

" _So we're hunting for a way through the relay?_ "

"I'll handle that. If you want to come back from the relay's destination, you're going to need a team. I've compiled a list of soldiers, scientists and mercenaries. You'll get dossiers on the best of them."

" _Keep them. I had a team. And a damn good one at that._ "

"It's been two years, Commander. They've moved on."

" _Where's Garrus Vakarian?_ "

"He left for Omega some time ago, and even Cerberus can't find him."

" _What about Urdnot Wrex_?"

"He went back to Tuchanka, and hasn't been seen off world in almost a year. I believe he's trying to unite the Krogan clans."

" _I met Tali'Zorah back on Freedom's Progress._ "

"I need more information before I can act on that. The Quarians are still on edge when it comes to Cerberus."

" _How about Kaidan Alenko?_ "

"He's still with the Alliance. Promoted, I believe. His file is surprisingly well-classified."

" _What about Liara T'Soni?_ "

"She's on Illium. My sources say she's working for the Shadow Broker, and if that's true, she can't be trusted."

" _Okay. I get it they're not available. Send me the dossiers._ "

"They're already on their way. Now then, three things," the Illusive Man sat at his chair and punched in a few commands at the holoterminal beside him, "first, head to Omega, and find Dr. Mordin Solus. He runs a clinic there. He's a genius. Secondly, there's a very specific mercenary you need to find. Over the last year, he has built a reputation as one of the best there is. His name is Damien Ramirez. He was last seen in the Phoenix Massing, but you'll have to hunt for him. He's good at hiding."

" _And the last thing?_ "

"I found a pilot I think you might like. I hear he's one of the best." The Illusive Man cut the link and took another drag from his cigarette.

* * *

"So you're telling me that these guys are smuggling your eezo and killing your workers, and you want me to kill them?" Damien asked.

" _That's about it._ "

"How did you get people this far into the Perseus Veil? I thought the Geth killed any organics they saw."

" _They didn't kill Saren._ "

"You're not Saren."

" _No, but I know what I'm doing. My people keep to the low-traffic areas._ "

"I find that hard to believe. The Geth are very thorough."

" _Not thorough enough. Do you want the job or not?_ "

"Yeah, I'll take it."

" _Good, you'll get the payment when the job's done. Eight-thousand, as promised._ "

"I'll head out ASAP." Damien cut the link, fired up his shuttle and left for the Phoenix Massing.

* * *

 **Another done! This is gonna be a good book. Next chapter won't be up so fast, because I didn't write it yet. The first two were written about six months ago.** **So expect a bit of a delay.**

 **Ta-ta for now!**

 **-AG**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

 _The Phoenix Massing._

* * *

"What the hell do you mean 'followed'?" Damien demanded as he stopped dead. He silently cursed whoever had followed him, and told himself that he would have to deal with them after he dealt with the miners.

" _I mean, they're landing on the planet right fucking now, and they're there for you, dumbass. This can't end well. That shuttle is Cerberus. I don't know who's in it yet, the satellite has to revolve back around, but they can't be friendly. Be prepared for a fight._ " Damien's contact, who called himself 'Lynx' responded.

 _Cerberus… why is that familiar?_ He wondered. "If you sold me out, I swear to God I will kill you." Damien said.

" _I'd expect no less._ "

Damien stalked through the brush some more. He had expected to find at least one crazy Terminus merc on the hunt for eezo miners, but so far, he had found none. "Has that satellite come back around yet?" He asked Lynx after a few hundred meters.

" _Give it a second… No. No, no, no, no. No fucking way._ "

Damien stopped dead. "What?"

" _That can't be… what the fuck?_ "

"What is going on?"

" _She's supposed to be dead…_ "

"Who is?"

" _The person who's following you… is Commander Shepard._ "

"What!?"

" _I shit you not. Take a look for yourself._ " A shiver ran down Damien's spine as the tall grass behind him rustled. He pivoted to see the woman from his vision back on Charybdis IX walking towards him, pistol drawn. She stopped and holstered the weapon as he cautiously grabbed his own.

"Ramirez?" She asked. He was silent. This was Commander Shepard standing in front of him, in the flesh and bone. _The_ Commander Shepard. Thought dead for two years and now she was standing in front of him. He felt like a kid whose dad had just come back into his life; he was completely dumbstruck.

 _This isn't happening. This is just me hallucinating. I've gone completely insane._ He rationalized.

"You _are_ Damien Ramirez, right?" She asked.

 _I can't have gone insane. I'm perfectly in my own mind. Holy shit, she's real!_ "Yeah." He finally said after regaining his composure.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the _Normandy_. I need your help on an important mission."

 _This is… so fucky._ "Then you came to the wrong place. I have to finish _my_ mission right now. I can't leave a job unfinished."

"What exactly is your mission right now?"

"Typical Terminus mercenary work. Killing people because they pissed off the wrong person."

"Well, you might want to look at this." She handed him a datapad with a message still on it: _Ramirez is on the job. He'll be heading there in a week. Prepare defenses. I want his head on a stick. I'll send more troops._

It wasn't signed, but Damien didn't care. _Goddamnit! Another job gone south? I'm too good at this shit._ He thought. _Then maybe it's time to change careers for a bit. Shepard's mission, whatever it might be, isn't sounding half bad right now._ He dropped the datapad and shook his head. "Thanks for the save, but I still need to take care of this, one way or the other. I'll make sure every last one of these assholes hangs."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" A dark-skinned man behind the commander asked.

"Not at all. The asshole who hired me wanted me dead. So I'll kill his goons and find him later, maybe kill him. Might let him suffer. Who knows?"

"Whatever we're doing, we need to do it quickly. The mercenaries saw us come in, they're preparing." Shepard said.

"Good. I like a weighted fight." Damien shouldered his rifle and walked away. Shepard and her teammate had only barely caught up to Damien when he found the first camp.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" She asked.

"Nope. But I'm gonna do it anyway."

"You'll be shot to death before you can even shoot back."

"Maybe. But I'm pretty good at surviving." He pulled up his Vindicator assault rifle and put the sights on the nearest 'miner', who was armed to the teeth with rifles, shotguns and pistols.

"These guys really want you dead."

"Yep." Damien pulled the trigger and the man fell down dead. The other 'miners' jumped up and grabbed their rifles.

"Shit! He's here! Where's the mechs?" One merc shouted.

"They're not-" The woman screamed as she was shot in the head and fell over. Damien jumped the low wall he was using for cover and opened up with his rifle. He dropped two more armed miners before taking a round in the shoulder.

"Damn!" He clutched the wound and slung his rifle over his shoulder as he drew his M3 Predator pistol. He shot the offending miner dead and shot another's legs out. Another miner charged at Damien with a knife in her hand, and the ex-ODST sidestepped, slammed his knee into the miner's back, and punched the woman into the ground. He then shot another miner dead and felt a blade lodge in his back. Damien reached over his back and grabbed the miner around the neck and threw him over his shoulder, planting his boot on the miner when he landed. "You assholes never learn. Don't. Fuck. With me." Damien shot the man dead and holstered his pistol. As the adrenaline rush subsided, a sharp pain shot up his back and made him fall to his knees. He coughed and saw the grass beneath him tint red with his own blood.

"Fuck." He gasped.

"Here." Shepard pulled the knife from his back and applied a healthy dose of medi-gel to the wound. "That should hold you over until we get to the ship."

"Fuck that. We need to end this now."

"We can handle that later. You're injured. You need medical attention."

"I've been through worse than a little stab wound. I'll live."

"Not when you're stabbed in the kidney."

"Fuck." He coughed up more blood. "Okay, I'm coughing up blood. Time for a visit to the doc." Shepard helped him up and started them back to the shuttle. Damien passed out from the blood loss as they entered the shuttle.

* * *

His head hurt, his back hurt, his shoulder hurt. Everything had a dull pain to it. Instinctively, Damien knew his armor had been removed. He didn't feel the usual weight of his ODST BDU on his chest anymore. He also knew that he was lying on an operating table, and he could barely hear a conversation nearby. "-injuries are extensive, commander. He has several shattered ribs, a hairline fracture on his right femur, a ruptured kidney from the stab wound, the muscles in his shoulder might never recover from the damage, and aside from that, he has so many bullet and blade wounds that any other doctor would pronounce him dead on that table." Now, the conversation was clear as day to Damien's ears.

"I'm only dead when I say I'm dead." He hauled himself up to a sitting position as a pair of women rushed over and urged him to take it easy. One was Commander Shepard, as Damien had suspected, and the other he assumed to be the ship's medical technician.

"Damien, take it easy. You just woke up from fifteen hours of surgery." Shepard told him.

"Yeah," he coughed, "and I feel fine."

"Well, you're not, according to the doc."

"And what's wrong with me?"

"Besides the metal arm and the multiple wounds you received just a few short hours ago?" The doctor asked. "You have enough wounds and scars that any other doctor would call you dead on that table and bury you."

"Well, I'm not dead. Obviously. I mean, I'm talking to you. And moving. So unless I'm a smart zombie, I'm not dead."

"No, evidently, you're not."

"So what all did you do to me?"

"Nothing. I simply repaired the muscles in your shoulder and the slice of kidney that the knife took out. Along with all of the other cuts and bullet wounds you have in you."

"As long as you didn't take any extra bits and pieces, I'm good."

"If you need me for anything, I'll be in the briefing room. EDI will get you a map of the ship." Shepard told him.

"EDI?"

"Our AI."

"Uh-huh. Sounds useful." After a few more tests and diagnostics, the med tech gave him leave to explore the ship. He took a liking to the port observation deck and decided to settle there for now. He threw his rifles and pistol on the couch, leaving his M3 Predator on his belt, and walked to the briefing room, following the map that had appeared on his omni-tool. " _Commander, you need to understand that it was not my intention to put you in such great risk if I did not believe the payoff would be greater._ " A muffled voice on the other side of the briefing room door said.

" _And you need to understand that I don't care what your intentions were. The fact of the matter is simply that we almost lost Ramirez down there because you didn't tell us everything._ " Shepard rebuked.

" _Had I told you everything, you would have waited, missed the chance, and Ramirez would be dead. The fact of the matter, commander, is that with those risks, you gained an invaluable asset to your team. One that I hope you appreciate._ "

" _Don't try to guilt me into saying you were right, because you weren't. You say Cerberus has my back and then you hold out information that might save my team. I can't trust you._ "

" _That's your decision if you trust me or not. The only thing I will say is this: keep an eye on your team. They may seem loyal now, but their loyalty may soon be tested._ "

" _Is that a threat or a promise?_ "

" _Neither. It's simply a warning, commander._ "

The door opened and Shepard stepped out, taking a deep breath and calming herself down. "Damien. Is there something you need?"

"I wanted to talk to you about finding the person who gave me this." He held up his prosthetic left arm.

"Nice battle scar. What happened?"

"I was tracking down a black market arms dealer on the Citadel who made the mistake of not offering his weapons to my employer, so I was hired to kill him. I was on a very good trail, which led to a nice ambush about seven months ago. I never found the dealer, but I'm pretty sure my old employer had a hand in the ambush."

"How can you be sure?"

"I dug a bit. They were old friends, the dealer and Kyren, my old employer. Kyren had always sent me on the high-risk jobs because I could get things done. But this time, I'm sure he knew there would be an ambush. He was waiting for me when I got back from getting my new arm."

"So where are we going?"

"Nowhere yet. I have to find Kyren. Give me some time for my contacts to find him, and I'll let you know."

"Talk to you later, then."

Damien walked back to the port observation deck and opened his omni-tool. He established a comm channel to Arbor, a contact of his that he had met on Omega. " _Damien Ramirez. To what do I owe the pleasure?_ "

"Cut the shit, would you? You do this every time."

" _You're the most famous mercenary this side of the Traverse. Being associated with you has… advantages._ " He heard someone giggle on the other end of the comm. The voice sounded quite… feminine.

"You're screwing a girl you met at the bar, aren't you?" Damien deadpanned.

" _Not yet. I was just about done with the foreplay. Until you decided to call and so rudely interrupt me._ "

"Yeah, that's great. Some of us actually need some important shit done. Seeing as you're an informant of mine, I figured I'd ask you. I need help tracking down someone."

" _Who?_ "

"Kyren."

" _Finally found the time?_ "

"You could say that."

" _Where'd you find the time?_ "

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

" _Uh-huh. Well, let me see here… He went to ground after you left for Omega. I think C-Sec was after him or something. Probably drug or weapon smuggling. Must have lost business when you cut ties. I might be able to dig something up. Let me check and I'll get back to you._ "

"Okay. Thanks."

" _Not a problem._ "

Damien closed the link and removed his helmet. It had a few dings and scratches in it, but that just made it look better in his opinion. The dark blue visor stared back at him. It made him remember his time in the ODSTs, how respected and feared they were on and off the battlefield. They were boogeymen to the Insurrectionists. _Good times, but they're over now._ He thought. He smirked as he heard a small rattle on the floor behind him. "You can come in, you know. You don't have to sneak around." He said out loud. The door opened and a woman walked in. She was fairly tall, around five foot eight he guessed, had short-ish brown hair, and blue eyes. She wore what looked like a white jumpsuit with a hexagonal pattern to the material. Damien thought that it showed way too much of her skin, but maybe that was intentional. He couldn't deny that she was attractive, but Damien couldn't care less about appearances. "Whatever it is you want, make it quick. I'm expecting a call."

"I know. I'm Miranda, Shepard's XO."

"That just means you give orders when she dies or retires. Neither is very likely right now, so that statement doesn't really carry much weight."

"I've read your file and it sounds to me like you'll be an excellent addition to the team." She seemed unfazed by his cold disposition.

"Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we? You know what? Maybe you can enlighten me a bit. What exactly are we going up against? The commander conveniently left that part out of her recruitment speech."

"We're going to take down the Collectors."

"Collectors, huh? I hate those things. I had to deal with one, once, on Omega. Just fucking creepy. I had nightmares for a week after that. But taking them down means a trip through the Omega-4 Relay. And no one's ever come back from there."

"I'm well aware of that."

"Well, I always knew I was going to die out in space somewhere. It'll be interesting to see what's on the other side, though."

"Nice to see you have a positive attitude."

"I face death on a daily basis. Comes with being an ODST."

"ODST?"

"Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Elite space marines who fall in dinky little pods from orbit to land and try not to die on the way down. There's usually a lot of AA fire. It's not easy, but it's fun."

"You're insane."

"That's why I signed up. We're the elite of the elite. We have no equals. Simple as that. Sure it's dangerous, but we're a unit that lives, breathes, dies, and kills together. You can't get that anywhere else."

"It's strange that there's not a single mention of them in the database."

"Of course not. We're not from here."

"Then where are you from?"

"I'm really gonna tell _you_. I don't trust you, and I've been stabbed in the back more than once. Many times in both senses of the phrase."

"Well, then I guess I should get back to work."

"If we're all going to survive this trip, then we've got a long couple of months ahead of us." She left and Damien put his helmet back on.

 _What was with the look on her face?_ He wondered. To a normal person, she would have come off as prying, controlling, and overall, a cold-hearted bitch. But Damien had eyes like a hawk, courtesy of ONI and the classified and now-disbanded ORION Project, and he had caught a slight smirk at the edge of her mouth.

 _Is she… attracted to me?_ He dared to think. After the fiasco in the Shrike Abyssal, Damien had suppressed all of his deeper emotions. He wasn't about to let himself be attached to anyone on that level again. Not when they were liable to die on him, or he them. _No, she's not. You're being bullheaded. Get real. She has a job to do. She's just pleased that I live up to my reputation. There's no time for that emotional shit here._ He left the observation deck and explored the ship a bit. It was mostly empty, only the all-Cerberus crew, plus Miranda, Shepard, and a Cerberus operative named Jacob onboard. Jacob was a soldier like Damien, but he had been with the Alliance before he had joined Cerberus. He had left because he was fed up with the bureaucratic bullshit that the brass threw up, and Damien could understand. That was exactly why he had decided to work with ONI instead of the UNSC Navy. ONI saw a problem and dealt with it, and Damien had liked that. That and the obligation he had for Project ORION.

Shepard told him that they were going to Omega to grab two more recruits. The first didn't strike him as familiar, a Salarian scientist named Mordin Solus. The second one, however, got his attention:

They were going to recruit Archangel.

"Archangel? He a mercenary?" Damien had asked.

"That's what I'm led to believe."

"He's a good man to have on your side, Commander. I worked with him a few times while I was on Omega. He's a crack shot and he'll tell it to you straight. He's perfect for the mission."

"You think so?"

"I know so. He's saved my ass several times. I'll vouch for him."

"Good. I'm sending you and Miranda to get him. Jacob and I will go after Mordin."

"Sounds like half of a plan."

"Half?"

"You never said what happens when shit hits the fan."

"Improvise."

"Now _that's_ a damn good plan, Shepard."

"You have absolutely no respect for command, do you?"

"Never had a commander who _earned_ my respect."

"Well, maybe I'll be the first."

"I hope so, or this trip through the Omega-4 relay is gonna be a one-way trip."

"That's a long way off."

"Yeah, but then we get going and, BAM, we're headed through the relay and we're all like 'how the fuck did this happen so fast?' I've seen that so many times it's not even funny anymore. It's coming faster than you think. I'd suggest preparing now."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"New armor, for starters. The stuff that you use now probably isn't up to spec. The Collectors are way far beyond us. We need to be able to take the heat. Literally. If we don't upgrade the armor, we'll be vaporized before anyone can say 'oh, shit.' And maybe a bigger main cannon too. Always need a bigger cannon. I'd say something like a MAC, if you know what that is."

"Well, I don't."

"Oh. Then you need a really big gun. And I mean _really_ big gun. If we're going to be fighting a Collector ship, I'd rather tear it apart with one shot. You know, less chance of dying that way."

"So what's a MAC?"

"A Magnetic Accelerator Cannon? It uses superconducting magnetic coils to throw a really big slug really fast through space. I think it's around 600- pounds or so. Simple physics really: big, dense object going really fast has lots of force behind it. It'll tear a ship into pieces. It's a bit of a drain on power; the coils take a lot to charge up, but it's worth it."

"You've seen one of these in action?"

"Are you kidding? I fired one."

"Why do I get the worst feeling about you, Damien?"

"Because everyone does. The ones who don't are the ones who hire me."

* * *

 **OKAY! Sorry for the huge hiatus, but I got a fuckton of work dumped on me all at once and didn't have a chance to write at all. I'll try to be more regular with updates to my stories, but I can't promise anything…**

 **Until next time!**

 **-AG**


	4. Note

**Hey. I know it's been a while, and I apologize for not updating anything.**

 **Sadly, this is not an update. It's more of an apology. And a goodbye.**

 **I've got a lot going on. A lot of problems I don't know how I'm going to solve.**

 **So I'm going on indefinite hiatus. I don't know if I'll come back to these stories, but if I do, it will be several months, maybe years.**

 **I'm sorry. This has been one of the best experiences for me. You guys have been better than I could have asked for.**

 **So this is goodbye.**

 **I hope that I can update again, but I don't know if I will.**

 **Greg (-AG)**


	5. Second Note

**Hey, everyone! Sorry, I'm not coming back just yet. But I do have good news!**

 **So I realized that I was bored out of my mind 'cause I wasn't writing anything…**

 **And I've been getting through a lot of the stuff that's been keeping me from my writing. (College-bound stuff mostly)**

 **So I'm coming back. Very soon.**

 **As in August 9** **th** **.**

 **Why?**

 **BECAUSE THAT'S MY DAMN BIRTHDAY AND WHAT BETTER PRESENT THAN YOUR SMILING FACES AND JOYOUS REACTIONS?!**

 **So yeah. For my birthday, I'll be posting a new chapter to each of my main stories (Reaper  
Crysis, ANB 2, Mass Effect: Battlefront, and ODST).**

 **If I'm feeling ambitious… I may put up a new story as well. That remains to be seen though…**

 **Anyways, I remain hard at work and I will see you all on the 9** **th** **of August.**


	6. Rewrite Notice

**Let me preface this by saying: I am so sorry for what I'm about to do.**

 **I was reading my draft of Chapter 3 (which was about half done) and I realized:**

 **I despise Damien as a character. I hate writing him. And I hate his story. If Damien was real, I would not want to be caught dead within a thousand meters of him.**

 **I also hate the way this story has gone so far. I feel like I didn't give it 100%, and I hate the way it is.**

 **I know I'll catch a lot of flak for this, but I'm rewriting ODST: To Hell and Back from scratch. I'm not going to turn Damien into something that he isn't, at least not entirely, but I want to improve him as a character, and I want to improve the story as a whole.**

 **ODST: To Hell and Back will be rereleased within the next two weeks, and at that point this one will be taken down.**

 **I am sorry, but I have such high expectations for this book, and I feel so insulted that so many of you read what I wrote for this before.**

 **I hope all of you can understand my thought here. And I hope you stick around to see what this storyline becomes.**

 **With much love,**

 **AlphaGuardian (-AG)**


End file.
